DOHA (Qatar): World No. 18 Carlos Llavador of Spain and World No. 19 Alaaeldin Abouelkassem of Egypt suffered shock defeats in the preliminary rounds of the men’s event of the FIE Grand Prix Doha 2021 at Aspire Dome on Friday.
Llavador of Spain suffered a third-round 15-13 loss in the hands of the 29th-ranked Wallerand Roger of France; and Abouelkassem lost 13-15 to Russia’s Dmitry Zherebchenko, ranked 17th.
The first day of the competition was otherwise an easy ride for the rest of the top fencers as they secured their round of 64 berths in style
Abouelkassem, a silver medalist at the London Olympics and the top-most ranked Arab fencer, had gotten on to a flying start after emerging joint runner-up in his pool, but his efforts in the subsequent round proved too little against the 30-year-old Russian gold medallist in the 2017 World Championships in what was arguably the most entertaining clash of the day.
While Abouelkassem lost, it was however, a different tale for his compatriot Hamza Mohammed, the world No. 30, who ensured that the Arab world’s flag remained flying at the tournament after emerging among the top-16 players from the first round.
Up next for the 20-year-old Egyptian is France’s Alexandre Ediri, ranked-106, who threw up one of the day’s surprises with his 15-8 defeat of the world No. 60 Andrii Pogrebniak in the third round.
